A GROUP supporting people with diabetes has been saved from the brink of collapse.

The West Dorset Voluntary Group of Diabetes UK was under threat of closing for good after 20 years of raising awareness in the region.

But a former chairman of the group refused to let it end and has taken the lead once again with an enthusiastic new committee behind him.

Brian Wootten, who has Type 2 diabetes, is heading a major re-launch, which will see the re-introduction of regular meetings, an awareness roadshow, and street collections.

It comes as Diabetes UK celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

Mr Wootten, 65, of Brutus Close, Dorchester, said: “Over the last couple of years the group has struggled to survive and the numbers attending functions has gradually dropped.

“The chairman was going to resign and the group was going to close. I used to be chairman and spent a lot of time with the group, so I said I would take it on.”

Mr Wootten is supported by Mary Winton as vice chairman, Henry Bartlett as minutes secretary, John Nairn as treasurer, and committee members Shirley Stainer, Henry Burn, Marianne Turton and Ian McLellan.

They will be representing the 17,000 plus people in Dorset diagnosed with diabetes – more than the entire population of Dorchester – but also reaching out to those who are unaware they have the condition.

The roadshow will be visiting surgeries around the county and has already called at three, reaching around 100 people.

Mr Wootten said: “A lot of people in Dorset cannot get to meetings, so we are trying to go to rural areas, primarily so that people there can get information.”

The meetings will begin again on Thursday, June 4 at Dorchester Town Football Club lounge at 7pm.

A cheque for £5,000, raised by the West Dorset Voluntary Group over the past year, will be presented to Jan Tyrrell on behalf of Diabetes UK, and members will also bid farewell to Jan Watson who is retiring from the Diabetes Centre in Dorchester as a diabetes specialist nurse.

The second meeting is on Thursday, July 9 at the same time and venue when the guest speaker will, be Xanthe Bristow, blood glucose monitoring advisor for the Diabetes Care Division of Roche Diagnostics Ltd.

Members will be collecting in the streets of Dorchester on June 10, running an awareness stand on Weymouth Esplanade on August 29, and at the Dorchester Show in September.